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Buying AI talent wholesale | TechCrunch

TechBrunchBy TechBrunchAugust 2, 20245 Mins Read
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Welcome to Startups Weekly, your weekly roundup of must-see stories from the startup world.

This week we cover small startup acquisitions, two new unicorns, a wearable AI device, and the venture capital backing Kamala Harris.

This week's most interesting startup stories

Canva logo on a bag on a table.Image credit: Bloomberg / Getty Images

With the IPO market all but dead, we can't help but track the other types of exits: mergers and acquisitions. While it's not necessarily the outcome founders and investors expected, we're sure to hear of more startups selling themselves.

Canva Taps into Leonardo: Graphic design platform Canva has acquired Leonardo.ai, a generative AI-powered image creation startup that has raised nearly $39 million in venture capital since it was founded two years ago. We don't know how much Canva paid for Leonardo, but we do know that the design giant has been busy building out its AI stack, and Leonardo is one piece of that puzzle. Read more

Airtable Acquires Dopt: The battle for AI talent has been fierce lately, which is why collaboration company Airtable has decided to make a big acquisition of such talent. This week, the company acquired Dopt, a startup that specializes in AI-powered onboarding. In its new home, the Dopt team will be responsible for developing various AI features and will work on Airtable Cobuilder, Airtable's recently released AI-driven app creation tool. Read more

Clutch Takes on Plaiced: Four-year-old Clutch, a marketplace that connects creators with businesses, had raised $2 million from investors including Precursor Ventures and at one point had more than 200 creators on the platform and a waiting list of 3,000. But the road was getting tougher; the startup restructured and laid off staff to ensure profitability. Still, the startup's co-founders decided the best path forward for Clutch was to sell to online social network Plaiced. Read more

Bending Spoons Acquires WeTransfer: Bending Spoons, the Italy-based technology company known for acquiring well-known but struggling startups like Evernote and Meetup, has acquired file-transfer service WeTransfer. The 15-year-old company had been considering going public in 2021 but withdrew those plans after the IPO deadline expired in early 2022. Read more

Most interesting fundraisers this week

Swiggy invests $180 million into bike taxi platform RapidoImage credit: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg / Getty Images

It's a bike, it's a taxi and it's a unicorn. Indian bike-taxi startup Rapido has achieved unicorn status with a $120 million funding round led by WestBridge Capital. The funding brings Rapido closer to challenging the long-standing mobility dominance of Uber and Ola in India. Read more

Flo Health Raises $200M: The fertility-focused period-tracking app raised a Series C led by General Atlantic at a $1 billion valuation. TechCrunch spoke with Flo co-founder and CEO Dmitry Gurski about the latest funding, women's health, and more. Read more

Combating loneliness with AI: It may feel like something out of a sci-fi novel or an episode of Black Mirror, but Harvard dropout Avi Shiffman believes constant companionship is one of the best use cases for AI. He's built a device called the Friend, a necklace that's constantly listening to you and responding via SMS. The Friend will cost $99 and is expected to launch in January 2025. It has raised $2.5 million in VC funding at a $50 million valuation from investors, including Caffeine Capital's Raymond Tonsing, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, and Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko. Read more

Also Bee: Another entrant into the wearable AI hardware that listens to and interacts with its owner is Bee. Founded by ex-Twitterers, the company has raised $7 million to develop an AI assistant that can take notes, give contextual reminders, create lists, and more. Read more

Knowde Gets Some: Sequoia-backed Knowde has raised $60 million at a lower valuation than the $500 million valuation it received in 2021. Founded by former DuPont chemists, the marketplace for buying chemicals and raw materials has raised more than $150 million in venture funding in total to date. Read more

This week's most interesting VC and fund news

Kamala HarrisImage credits: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images, Maggie Stamets/Cody Corrall/TechCrunch

Venture capitalists support Kamala: With just a few months until the 2024 presidential election, many venture capitalists are publicly choosing sides. This week, Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, and Mark Cuban pledged to vote for Kamala Harris. They created a group called VCsForKamala and are using the website to solicit donations for the current vice president. As of this writing, 645 venture capitalists have pledged their support for Harris. Read more

Cook Leaves Tiger: Over the past few years, Tiger Global has seen some high-profile departures, including head of software investments John Curtius and Scott Schleifer, who joined the firm as an adviser. The latest departure is Alex Cook, a partner who focused on many of Tiger's India investments. Read more

Moxxie Raises Third Fund: Funding can be tough for emerging venture capital firms, but Moxxie Ventures defied expectations by handily exceeding its fundraising goal for its third fund. Led by Katie Jacobs Stanton, a seasoned investor with a strong network, the little-known, founder-focused firm secured $95 million in new capital. Read more

Last but not least

Image credit: Applied Intuition

Self-driving car software startup Applied Intuition raised $250 million in Series E a few months ago. Now the company has raised $300 million in a secondary sale, adding Fidelity Management & Research Company to a long list of existing investors that includes Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Mary Meeker's growth fund Bond. Read more



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